easy vegetarian cooking for everyone, with a few ideas mixed in.

Vegetarian Burrito Bowl

After cooking for five years in a galley kitchen, that also happened to be in the main thoroughfare of the house, we are really enjoying the new kitchen. The old one was what we needed, and I never noticed its flaws. People would gasp at the small alley that produced big meals. In the old house, we had created a butler’s pantry out of a the basement office. It held bowls, serveware, bakeware, the wok, etc. The basement den held our wine glasses and cocktail-ware. Now, all of this is held in one room, and I never really imagined how wonderful that would feel. To have wine glasses next to the fridge.

The bottom right cabinet is Serafina's Cabinet. She can pull out all her dishes and baby tupperware to play with it while I cook. In the old house, it was under my prep space, but now she has her own corner.

Serving bowls above the prep space.

We have the very high tech form of baby proofing: rubberbands on the cabinets. Works like a charm, if Serafina finds them not secured. She lets us know and we help her put them back on. Hysterical.

I don’t have to ask AAM to grab the baking pan on his way up from the den. Not a particularly giant kitchen, or at all perfect, the new kitchen is big enough for people to gather, Serafina to play, and well a great, bright, place to cook.

The large farm sink is big enough to clean platters and awkward dishes. The window box is the perfect spot to grow herbs, if we didn't have cats. For now, they like to nap there.

As always, we have some plans. I need a small rolling island to help my work triangle. Right now I have to walk too far from the prep area to the stove. Eventually, we would like a new sturdier stove and hardworking dishwasher. Then there is the piece we didn’t notice at first. There is no microwave. In an experiment, we wanted to see how long it took for us to go without a microwave. AAM grew up without one, and I don’t really use them that often, or so I thought. I am proud to say we made it almost two months, but, then we got busy. Serafina’s hunger doesn’t understand busy, neither does her growing body. We would get home at night, and she would walk straight to her high chair asking to eat. Reheating her food on the stove didn’t seem to work with the speed she preferred to be fed. And well, finally, AAM realized that he was missing our weekly burrito night. We didn’t realize how often we made and ate burritos, but they are a key part of a well rounded vegetarian diet. A great vehicle for beans and veggies. A microwave is not mandatory, but it sure makes life easier. So, last night we had a burrito in celebration of our brand new microwave.

Today, I gathered the remnants and made a Vegetarian Burrito Bowl….mmmmmm. This is not a from scratch recipe, or that inventive, but I think of it as a good reminder of what to do with those burrito leftovers. When choosing your guacamole or salsa, it is pretty important to have some spiciness with a burrito bowl, otherwise it can be pretty plain and boring. I recommend adding jalapeno to this guacamole recipe. This recipe makes 2-3 bowls.